Nell Peterson, MSN, RN, LSSBB
About
Nell Peterson is a dynamic healthcare executive with expertise in hospital operations, nursing, and quality with over 19 years of progressive leadership experience. Prior to working at NorthGauge, a Coker company, she was the System Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety for a large health system located in Tennessee. She holds an MSN degree from Nebraska Methodist College and an undergraduate degree from the University of South Dakota. She is in the process of completing her MBA degree from the University of Tennessee. She is known for her transformational and servant leadership approach and has a proven track record of success in transforming programs to have the best in class performance. Nell excels in creating value-driven programs focused on quality, safety, and performance excellence. She is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and focuses on optimizing clinical operations and achieving measurable results without sacrificing quality or patient safety.
Experience
- Skilled at leading large teams in the areas of infection prevention, quality and nursing operations, emergency departments, performance improvement, regulatory, medical staff services, and data analytics.
- Transformed health systems Leapfrog score from Cs to all As
- Transformed organization star ratings from two stars to five stars
- Skilled at leading root cause analyses
- Designed and implemented performance governance structure and organization-wide training program for 11k+ employees
- Restructured infection prevention services to allow for virtual IP coverage, reduced FTE, and improved outcomes
- Restructured clinical documentation to ensure capture of regulatory requirements decreasing clinical time spent at the bedside.
- Participation in the development and onboarding of hospital at home model of care
- Implementation and integration of new electronic medical record system
- Implemented a physician integrated performance improvement program
- Design and development of electronic COVID data reporting system that was adopted by the state of Tennessee.
- Reduced penalty programs by millions of dollars annually
- Increased capture of HCCs, improving revenue and quality metrics
- State and OIG responses to clinical concerns, formulated responses and manages action plans to CMS conditions of participation to over 40 action plans
- Reduced emergency department throughput metrics
- Managed over 24 successful on-site triennial Joint Commission surveys
- Expert in Joint Commission, CARF, DNV, and CIHQ
Areas of Expertise
- Infection Prevention
- Regulatory body/ CMS Compliance
- Performance Improvement
- Physician Peer Review
- Clinical Decision Support
- Clinical Performance Improvement
- Quality-Based Healthcare Initiatives
Education
University of Tennessee
Master in Business Administration- in process
Knoxville, TN
Nebraska Methodist College
Master in Nursing Administration
Omaha, NE
University of South Dakota
Associate Degree in Nursing
Vermillion, SD
Certifications & Special Training
Healthcare Leadership (University of Tennessee)
Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt (Department of Defense)
Patient Safety Certification (Department of Veteran Affairs & University of Michigan)
Expired certifications: TNCC, CEN, ACLS, PALS, CCRN